Lavender's Blue

"Lavender's Blue" (sometimes called "Lavender Blue") is an English folk song and nursery rhyme dating to the 17th century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3483. It has been recorded in various forms since the 20th century and some pop versions have been hits in the US and UK charts.

Lavender's Blue
English folk song
A 17th-century broadside version of the ballad
Catalogue	Roud 3483
Genre	Nursery rhyme
Published	English broadside (before 1680)
Comment	collected in the UK & US

Lyrics

There are as many as thirty verses to the song, and many variations of each verse. A typical version, described by James Halliwell in 1849,[1] is:

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,

When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen:

Who told you so, dilly dilly, who told you so?

'Twas mine own heart, dilly dilly, that told me so.

Call up your men, dilly dilly, set them to work,

Some with a rake, dilly dilly, some with a fork;

Some to make hay, dilly dilly, some to thresh corn,

Whilst you and I, dilly dilly, keep ourselves warm.

If you should die, dilly dilly, as it may hap,

You shall be buried, dilly dilly, under the tap;

Who told you so, dilly dilly, pray tell me why?

That you might drink, dilly dilly, when you are dry.[1]

Origins

The earliest surviving version of the song is in a broadside printed in England between 1672 and 1679,[2] under the name Diddle Diddle, Or The Kind Country Lovers.[3] The broadside indicates it is to be sung to the tune of "Lavender Green", implying that a tune by that name was already in existence. The lyrics printed in the broadside are fairly bawdy, celebrating sex and drinking.[4]

According to Robert B. Waltz, "The singer tells his lady that she must love him because he loves her. He tells of a vale where young man and maid have lain together, and suggests that they might do the same". Waltz cites Sandra Stahl Dolby as describing this broadside version as being about a girl named Nell keeping the singer's bed warm.[2]

Here is the first of ten verses:

Lavender's green, diddle, diddle,
Lavender's blue
You must love me, diddle, diddle,
cause I love you,
I heard one say, diddle, diddle,
since I came hither,
That you and I, diddle, diddle,
must lie together.<ref name=Opie1997/>

Both Waltz (citing Eloise Hubbard Linscott) and Halliwell have noted the song's association with Twelfth Night and the choosing of the king of queen of the festivities of that holiday.[2][1]

"Lavender's Blue" emerged as a children's song in Songs for the Nursery in 1805 in the form:

Lavender blue and Rosemary green,
When I am king you shall be queen;
Call up my maids at four o'clock,
Some to the wheel and some to the rock;
Some to make hay and some to shear corn,
And you and I will keep the bed warm.<ref name=Opie1997/>

Similar versions appeared in collections of rhymes throughout the 19th century.[5]

20th century

"Lavender Blue"
Single by Sammy Turner
from the album Lavender Blue Moods
B-side	"Wrapped Up In A Dream"
Released	1959
Recorded	1959
Genre	Soul doo-wop R&B
Length	2:13
Label	Big Top
Songwriter(s)	Traditional
Producer(s)	Jerry Leiber Mike Stoller
Sammy Turner singles chronology
"Lavender Blue" (1959) "Sweet Annie Laurie" (1959)

A version of the song, titled "Lavender Blue", was featured in the 1949 Walt Disney film So Dear to My Heart, where it was sung by Burl Ives. This version was nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1949 (losing to "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter). This version of the song was credited to Eliot Daniel (music) and Larry Morey (lyrics). "Lavender Blue" was one of 400 nominees for the American Film Institute's "100 Years... 100 Songs" list of the 100 greatest film songs, which was presented on a television program of that name which aired on June 22, 2004, but it didn't make the final list.[6][7] The appearance of "Lavender Blue" in the Disney film sparked a revival of interest in the song.

Recordings

Several versions of the song have been released in the US and the UK.[2]

• The Burl Ives version featured in the film So Dear to My Heart was released in 1949.
• In 1949, Vera Lynn recorded a version of the song.
• Sammy Kaye's 1949 version charted at #5.[8]
• Dinah Shore also released a version in 1949 which went to #1 on the Australian chart.[9] It was the title track of her album Lavender Blue.[10]
• In 1955, jazz pianist Jack Pleis recorded it for his album Music from Disneyland.
• In 1959, Sammy Turner released a version which reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.[11][12]
• Tommy Bruce made a single of it in 1963 which was not a hit.
• The Fleetwoods recorded a version of the song in 1965.
• In 1965, Ray Walston and a children's Chorus sang the song from the album "Songs from "Mary Poppins" and other children's classics".
• In 1975, the song was interpreted by Leon Russell and Mary Russell for their Wedding Album. The song was entitled "Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)".
• In 1976, the song was recorded by The City Waites on their eponymous (second) album.
• In 1983, David Bowie sang a couplet from the song as an introduction to "Heroes" in the live recording Serious Moonlight.
• On their 1985 UK number one album Misplaced Childhood, the British neo-progressive rock band Marillion recorded a song called "Lavender", which had lyrics derived from the folk song and became a number 5 hit on the UK singles chart.[13][14]
• In 1988, Broadway singer Barbara Cook recorded a version for her release The Disney Album.
• In 1990, the early music group The City Waites recorded the original 17th-century bawdy broadside version of "Lavender's Green, Lavender's Blue" on their album Pills to Purge Melancholy.
• In 1991, The Wiggles included this song on their albums The Wiggles and Pop Go The Wiggles. There are two versions of this song, with one sung by Greg Page and the other sung by Sam Moran.
• In 2011, Laura Wright recorded a version for her album The Last Rose.
• In 2012, Alyse Black recorded her rendition of the Sammy Turner version with her band 'Night, Sweet Pea on their album A Little Line of Kisses.
• In 2016, Reinhard Mey recorded a version for his album Mr. Lee.

In other media

Film

• In 1948, the song was featured in the film So Dear to My Heart.
• In 2012, the song made several appearances in the film Christmas Oranges, sung by the protagonist, Rose (Bailee Michelle Johnson).
• In 2015, the song was used again by Disney in Cinderella. It is sung to Cinderella by her mother (Hayley Atwell) when she is a child and later by an adult Cinderella (Lily James) when she's locked in her room by her stepmother (Cate Blanchett). The film's score also uses an orchestral version of the song at various points.
• In 2017, the song made an appearance in the Hallmark made-for-TV movie A Royal Winter when the underprivileged children sang it for the Crown Prince Adrian and again at the end of the movie.
• In the Canadian film Lavender (2016 film), a similar version of the song is sung, but made to sound more sinister.

Literature

• Naomi Mitchison used the first line in her 1931 historical novel The Corn King and The Spring Queen
• In John Updike's 1960 short story, "A Sense Of Shelter," the story's protagonist sings the song to himself.[15]
• Andre Norton's 1975 novel, Lavender-Green Magic includes the lyrics to the song, and the title of the book is drawn from the second line of the song.
• In 1980, the song was a prominent motif in M.M. Kaye's children's novel The Ordinary Princess.
• In 1989, the song appeared in the horror novel Walkers by Graham Masterton.
• A ghost named The Harper's Bride in Nora Roberts' best selling In the Garden trilogy sang it for many years as she haunted a mansion's nursery and watched over the babies.
• Sabrina Spellman's mother, Diana, is seen singing the song while she is imprisoned in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic series.
• In 2018, allusions to the song were repeatedly made in Hazel Gaynor's historical fiction novel The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter.

Theatre

• In Benjamin Britten's 1954 opera, The Turn of The Screw, the song is sung by the two children, Miles and Flora.[16]
• In Brad Fraser's 1989 play Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, lyrics from the song are repeatedly sung by the character Benita.

Television

• In an episode of U.S. sitcom The Ghost & Mrs. Muir aired in 1969, Mark Lester, playing a visiting English schoolboy sings this song to regular cast member, Candy, in a dream sequence.
• It is used in Series 1 Episode 2 of UK dark comedy Nighty Night. Jill does an interpretive dance about her husband's cancer as the man she falls for walks into the church hall.
• In the Broadcast to the Empire Christmas Night with the Stars episode of Dad's Army broadcast in 1972, Sergeant Wilson says a few lines of the song as a microphone test for the BBC Radio Christmas Broadcast.
• In 2010, during episode four of season one, called "I Remember Nothing" of the Australian drama series "Spirited", produced by Foxtel, the main protagonist Henry Mallet sings the song to Suzy Darling's young sleeping daughter Verity.
• On the Australian children's TV show Wurrawhy, Wubleyoo and Lauren performed a song, with Lauren strumming the guitar.
• In 2011, the character Freida Short sings it to Van Alden's newborn baby in the episode "Peg of Old" (Season 2 Episode 7) of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.
• In 2017, in Hallmark Channel's original movie "A Royal Winter", the children's choir sings this song which the King used to sing to the Prince when he was a boy.
• In 2019, the Netflix original series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina used the song (an original recording) in an episode.

References

1. Halliwell, James Orchard (1849). Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales. London: John Russell Smith. pp. 237–238. ISBN 978-0370012551. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
2. Robert B. Waltz & David G. Engle. "Lavender Blue". Traditional Ballad Index. California State University, Fresno. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
3. See also here
4. (Traditional) (1674–1679). "Diddle, Diddle (or The Kind Country Lovers)". Traditional Music Library. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
5. Opie, Iona; Opie, Peter (1951). The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Oxford University Press. pp. 265–7. ISBN 9780198691112.
6. "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs (nominee list)" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
7. "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs". American Film Institute. 2004. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
8. "Billboard Best Sellers Chart History – "Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)" by Sammy Kaye 1949". Song Database. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
9. "Song artist 62 - Dinah Shore". The World's Music Charts. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
10. "Dinah Shore – Lavender Blue". Discogs. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
11. "Billboard Hot 100 Chart History – "Lavender-Blue" by Sammy Turner 1959". Song Database. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
12. "Sammy Turner Top Songs". Music VF. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
13. "Marillion: Misplaced Childhood". Dutch Progressive Rock Page. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
14. David Roberts British Hit Singles and Albums, Guinness World Records Limited
15. Updike, John (January 16, 1960). "A Sense of Shelter". The New Yorker: 29. Retrieved March 7, 2017. Shuffling through the perfumed crowds to his next class, he crooned to himself, in the slow, over-enunciated manner of the Negro vocalist who had brought the song back this year, "Lah-vender blue, dilly dilly, / Lavendih greeh-een; / Eef I were king, dilly dilly, / You would: be queen". The song gave him an exulting sliding sensation..."
16. Philip Rupprecht (11 February 2002). Britten's Musical Language. Cambridge University Press. pp. 157–. ISBN 978-1-139-44128-5.

External links

• Media related to Lavender's Blue at Wikimedia Commons